Human Rights Watch and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) have called on NATO and the European Union to do more to help African migrants in trouble at sea. As the death toll of casualties climbs, NATO and EU officials say they are doing what they can to save those seeking to escape the conflict in Libya.
Hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans have died fleeing Libya by sea since the end of March. A boat carrying over 600 people sank off the Libyan coast on 7 May, with the death toll still unclear. On 6 April, over 200 people, including children, died when their boat sank in Maltese waters. As many as 800 more people who have left Libya by boat over the past six to eight weeks are unaccounted for and presumed dead.
“With a mounting death toll, all vessels in the Mediterranean, including NATO forces and those of member countries, shouldn’t wait until a boat is sinking to intervene”, said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “As more and more people attempt the crossing in overcrowded, unsafe boats, all vessels in the area should assume overcrowded migrant boats are in distress, come immediately to their rescue, and take their passengers to safety”.
Human Rights Watch is also calling on NATO and its member countries to conduct a full investigation into allegations of failure to rescue a disabled boat filled with migrants fleeing Libya. The boat, carrying seventy-two people including two babies, apparently drifted for two weeks in the Mediterranean before landing back in Libya on 10 April, despite distress calls and sightings by a military helicopter and what appeared to be an aircraft carrier. The nine survivors have returned to Tripoli, but are hoping to reach Tunisia with the assistance of a local Catholic church.
“What could NATO have done to prevent these people from dying?” said Sunderland. “We need an investigation to determine if, and how, this terrible tragedy could have been averted”. Failure to rescue people on a boat in distress when it is reasonable for a ship to do so is a serious breach of international law, Human Rights Watch said. The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on 9 May for an “immediate and comprehensive” investigation.
NATO has denied the charge that it ignored migrants in distress at sea, saying it was unaware of the boat’s plight. A NATO spokesman in Brussels told Human Rights Watch that NATO had looked into the matter with due diligence and found no records of any contact with the boat, adding that no further investigations are envisioned. But reviewing the paper trail should only be the first step in a more in-depth inquiry, including interviews with relevant personnel on ships in the area at the time and at NATO command in Naples, Human Rights Watch said.
At a press conference on 10 May, NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said that while NATO's mandate was to protect civilians in Libya, the Alliance was also helping those at sea. "While they are carrying out that mandate, ships under NATO command will always respond to calls from ships in distress. This is the duty under the Law of the Sea and to suggest that our ships' captains would do otherwise is unfair and ... disrespectful", she said. For example, Romero said that in March, NATO helped two foundering ships carrying 500 people. She also said there were allegations the Libyan government recently forced migrants into at least one boat which sank soon after.
In early April, EU foreign ministers agreed to set up an EU military force for Libya (Eufor Libya) for humanitarian action, including evacuations by sea. No operations have been conducted, however. “There’s been an awful lot of hand-wringing about a potential massive influx of refugees from Libya, with Italy and Malta bearing the brunt of rescue missions and reception of those fleeing Libya by sea, but more has to be done to help people reach safety without risking their lives”, Sunderland said. “To help prevent further deaths at sea, the EU as a whole should show concrete solidarity and begin evacuating to Europe migrants who are trapped by the violence”.
The sea migration from Africa to Europe has been going on for years, but the numbers have spiked with the recent Arab uprisings. The plight of these sea migrants is part of a larger European debate about how to deal with those fleeing the Arab turmoil. Since late March, when the first wave of people began to flee Libya by sea, more than 10,000 have reached Italy and over 1,000 have reached Malta. The vast majority are sub-Saharan Africans. Thousands of migrants remain trapped in Libya, unable to flee by land to neighbouring countries.